Toby Minor

Portrait by Steve Rogers Photography

My Approach to Teaching

I want each student to gain strength, knowledge, and self-worth from my classes. I strive to find the best way to reach the individual student and then bring them into the collaboration of what we are learning. We have to know the rules and be grounded in those rules before we can bend and break them! I want students to leave knowing not only how to throw a physical punch, but an emotional one as well.

My Perspective for Training for the Industry

I truly believe that we have to continually train. As actors, we must train every part of us in order to do the work. That means training physically to stay in shape and have muscle control while staying flexible and agile. Weight training, Yoga, Cross fit, Martial Arts, Boxing, Rock Climbing, jump rope, juggling, and skateboarding etc… Any and all things you can do means that you are that much more hire-able.

We also have to balance the physical with the mental and emotional. We have to understand how to use our instrument in every way we can. Training in all the acting techniques, Meisner, Stanislavsky, Alexander, Laban, Droznin, etc… Voice lessons for singing as well speaking, physical training for control and emotional training are all vital to being a working actor. The more you can do, the more you will do!

Meet Toby Minor:

Toby Minor is the Stage Combat Instructor at Texas State University. He has been a certified Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) for 18 years. He has choreographed violence at Texas State for Romeo and Juliet, in which he also played “Lord Capulet”, Hamlet, Ragtime, Fool for Love, Norma’s Rest, A Flea in Her Ear, A View From the Bridge, Evita, and Titus. He has choreographed in Austin at Zach Theatre for Peter and the Starcatcher in which he also played “Smee”, and One man Two Governors in which he played “Alfie”, and won a B. Iden Payne award for Best Fight Choreography, as well as at Hidden Room Theatre for The History of King Lear in which he also played “Burgandy”(This show was invited to perform at the Globe theatre in London in the summer of 2017), and Rose Rage for which Toby won a B.Iden Payne award for Outstanding Fight Choreography. Toby has also won a B.Iden Payne for Fight Choreography for Coriolanus with Trinity Street Players. Toby was also nominated for the international Falstaff award for Fight Choreography for his choreo in Hamlet with Austin Shakespeare Theatre. Toby recently did fight choreography for Zach Theatre’s production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and will be choreographing Beauty and the Beast at Zach this summer as well as Shakespeare in Love at the Austin Playhouse. His acting credits include several short films, commercials, voice-over work and a rather lengthy list of stage productions in Austin, Chicago, Colorado and many points between, working with theatres like Creed Repertory, Austin Shakespeare, Zach Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare, Stage Left Theatre, Looking Glass, Hidden Room, and Penfold Theatre.